I’m looking for information and pictures on 0-4-0T stem engines. There is an old engine in Caro,Mi. that is in sad shape and I would like to find out who built these engines and for whom they worked. There is one site that has a possible site for its last working site (BASF in Wynndot, Mi.). The site does not tell who manufactured th engine or much other information on it.
I searched and found pictures of the engine you’re talking about on the net. This is actually a fireless locomotive. Fireless locomotives only worked for industries such as factories, mines, etc. and never real railroads. The reason for this was because fireless engines don’t have a firebox to build up steam like a regular steam engine. They instead take in excess steam from the industries they serve to run them. To find out everything you could ever want to know about fireless engines go to www.nrhs.com/web_exclusives/fireless_cooker/ . It’s a real shame what horrible shape this engine is in. It angers me to see beautiful trains left to deteriorate like that.
Mitchell [:)] [:)] [:)]
Once again you have saved the day and came through with flying colors. [:)]
Thanks for the link. I have saved it in my favorites to look further into it this weeken.
Great Job, again, THANKS.
Actually, there are still some fireless engines still running today. On the island of Java in Indonesia some work at sugar mills. Actually, in Java there are a great deal of sugar mills that have steam powered narrow gauge railways today. There are also some running in Serbia. Germany has a couple of power plants that run them (some of these were actually built in the 80’s). Until recently there were some in Cuba as well. Here are some links about these. One’s in Japanese, but it’s still got pretty pictures. I couldn’t find the German ones, but I did see it on the internet somewhere.
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/javatour/trains/fireless.htm
www.steam.demon.co.uk/trains/serbia1.htm
www.photoland-aris.com/tsuzuki/fireless/
Considering that fireless engines don’t use any fuel, it’s surprising that they aren’t something that’s more commonly used today.